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This paper addresses the general subject of the representation of disabled people. The purpose is to show why disabled people need to speak for themselves, how they can work with other organisations, and how disabled people's organisations are, and can remain, truly representative. The paper discusses: (1) the representation of disabled people; (2) how do disability groups relate to able-bodied organisations, policy-makers, etc?; and (3) how can disabled people's groups remain truly representative?

This paper suggests that current ways of thinking about disability are inadequate, both theoretically and as a basis for social policy. The main reason for this is that most writers have remained locked within a 'personal tragedy theory of disability' and have failed to examine the concept of disability critically. Even those writers who have attempted to take disability seriously have failed to move beyond a traditional framework and have subsequently produced sterile accounts. The final section of the paper begins to suggest what a social theory of disability might look like.

This paper is based on an ethnographic type study of the say that young people have in the decisions which shape their education and their lives. Such student participation in decision-making is not only a challenge to an essentially authoritarian system in which education is controlled by teachers, politicians and others, it is the foundation of citizenship. The research was undertaken in a newly established, supposedly unique, vocational college for 14-18 year-olds. The analysis of data was structured in a framework of participative democracy: freedom, equality and fraternity. Using this framework, the paper examines the development of power structures, power relations and ideologies which maintain status quo, and define and determine the say young people have in decision-making. It addresses the denial of any foundation for active participatory citizenship in a segregated educational setting.

In this paper we share our collaborative experience of making a video in which disabled women present their lives as they wish to portray them. We undertook what we hope will be perceived as emancipatory research, in which disabled and non-disabled women work together to create audio-visual teaching materials. We include a preliminary discussion about the representation of disability on British television broadcasts between October 1991 and March 1992. We look at negative imagery, charity fund raising, and positive images. The paper uses comments by disabled broadcasters and disabled academics, and reflects on their work.

This paper takes a critical look at simulation exercises. Little evidence exists that these exercises have a positive effect on either attitudes or behaviour but, despite this, they are used extensively in disability awareness training, both for children and adults. It is argued in this paper that by individualising and medicalising disability, and by focusing excessively on problems and difficulties, simulation exercises provide false and misleading information, and inculcate negative, rather than positive, attitudes towards disabled people. It is suggested that simulation exercises fail to simulate impairment correctly, and address neither the coping strategies and skills disabled people develop in living with impairment, nor the cumulative social and psychological effect of encountering social and physical barriers over a lifetime. Rather than using simulation as a means of attempting to understand the experience of disability, the paper concludes by advocating the use of disability equality training, which is devised and run by disabled people themselves.

This article is based on several years of research done by the two authors, one of whom is Deaf and the other hearing. The paper discusses research done within the Deaf community using sign language. This is an estimated 50,000 people-the same number as those whose first language is Welsh. The Deaf community sees itself as a linguistic and cultural minority and as such is quite distinct from people with an acquired hearing loss, or those who are hard of hearing and who usually rely on written and spoken English through lipreading or writing things down. The paper sets this research in the context of cross-cultural research and looks at its connections with emancipatory research. The central discussion is in the form of a dialogue between the Deaf and hearing researchers and their personal responses to cultural differences. In the past Deaf people have been denied the opportunity of making their opinions known because research has used written or spoken language. Our research, using videocameras to record sign language and Deaf research using sign language to interview, provides a means of interviewing more suited to Deaf people than to hearing researchers. However, as the hearing culture is likely to be perceived as the dominant culture, there are bound to be differences when a hearing and Deaf researcher are working together within the Deaf community. These are the issues which we discuss within Deaf research.

This paper questions the notion that being a black disabled person is to experience a 'double oppression'. On the contrary, this paper suggests that black disabled people have a singular experience. The sum of a number of experiences helps to shape the general outlook of this group. Rather than double oppression, these experiences occur simultaneously; this is a more appropriate description. The image of black disabled people has been ascribed from without. This is based upon a comparison with the experience of white people. For example, certain ailments experienced by black people are seen in terms of a failure on their part to follow 'a healthy Western diet'. This paper suggests that decision making by those who allocate finite state resources assume a similar norm. The immigration debate stigmatises black people as interlopers in Britain. Both bizarre health practices and the fear of interlopers isolate black disabled people. Finally, this paper looks at the impact of this form of marginalisation on the ethnic minority community. However, the identities constructed by these various communities in response to ascription impacts upon their disabled peers. This is because of wide acceptance of the medical model of disability.

Australian disability services have undergone a major review. Initiated by the government and now enshrined in new legislation, this review has significant implications for non-government social welfare organisations as major service providers in that it demands a significant service delivery reorientation. This paper describes one demonstration project involving four physically disabled persons, one female and three males, located in one domiciliary unit which signposts this new service direction and identifies it as a consumer-directed and empowering model. This is contrasted with previous institutional and care models of service. It identifies the staff role as important in this client-empowering model of service and raises a range of critical issues in the consumer-staff interface which enhances such empowerment. The paper suggests that where these staffing features and empowerment processes are lacking deinstitutionalisation may well have occurred without consumer empowerment being achieved.

Increasing confusion and dissatisfaction with so-called 'care in the community' and 'community care' initiatives has prompted a search for greater clarity and accuracy in human services. An attempt has been made to specify some of the means and ends required to establish local comprehensive services for a range of client groups. The first of two papers describes some of the skills required by workers for successful involvement and examines methods of developing individual neighbourhoods. Tensions between clients, users, residents, planners and workers are examined within the context of integrative neighbourhood services. A subsequent paper describes the means by which this transition to local neighbourhood services is planned, recorded and evaluated.

This paper focuses on interdisciplinary and interorganizational concerns which are involved in the development of technology which will be of use to physically disabled persons. The paper is divided into five parts: (1) The concepts, 'interdisciplinary' and 'interorganizational' are described and defined. (2) Then, a number of concerns and problems involved in interdisciplinary and interorganizational work are identified. (3) From parts 1 and 2, an interdisciplinary/interorganizational framework is developed. (4) This framework is then used to analyze some problems and to examine possible solutions, focusing on the development of technology for physically disabled persons. (5) The paper ends with conclusions and recommendations.

In this paper issues relating to the social construction of mental retardation are raised. The writings of a group of six people, diagnosed as moderately mentally retarded, are used to highlight several areas of debate. It is argued that labelling people as mentally retarded, particularly those deemed mildly or moderately retarded, is not necessarily of benefit to those individuals. Furthermore, this process establishes and perpetuates the notion that people so-called are incapable of acting in their own best interests. The work of the six people used in this paper challenges these notions, and suggests that many people who are labelled as mentally retarded are aware of their needs and are able to express these coherently.

Despite their relative invisibility, deaf people have a well established position in our special education and social services. They are a group to be cared for. Yet they have not always been like that nor do we believe they should be seen only in this light. This paper examines how social pressures have acted on deafness in work, in education, in the professionalisation of services, have impinged on deaf people themselves, and have created a misunderstood and under-estimated minority. We consider the current situation of deaf people in terms of their lack of power, the new emergence of their language and culture and the use of signing in education. All of these aspects highlight the need to reconsider our treatment of deaf people and the paper encourages some self-examination of professional roles.

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of ten persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) based upon a series of in-depth interviews conducted over a period of 12 months. Data was analysed with procedures similar to those utilised by grounded theory and ethnographic researchers, and resulted in a typology that reflected different experiences of living with TBI as well as different meanings it had for persons with TBI. A thematic analysis of the data yielded information about self, disability and handicap, and involvement in social networks; and, reflected the participants' sense of personal well-being. This analysis provided an alternative to the data yielded by traditional quantitative research designs.

Public education authorities throughout the Australian States and Territories have moved towards the development of policies and programmes to integrate students considered disabled into regular classrooms. The implementation of policy frequently is reduced to disputation over resources which, it is argued, will facilitate integration. This paper contends that such debates sustain the flawed notion that integration is simply a technical issue to be achieved through deployment of special equipment and personnel to regular schools, recommending a further consideration of the contribution of pedagogy, curriculum and school organisation to disabling or enabling educational programmes.

In the context of normalisation and rights recognition, capacity for decision-making by people with an intellectual disability has emerged as an important but potentially contentious issue. Although increased community integration has opened up many new options, opportunities for greater autonomy are still unnecessarily constrained. Perceptions of limited competence, the issue of who has control over choices, and organisational structures are some of the factors which influence the extent to which clients are able to make decisions. This paper argues that, in order to resolve these issues, decision-making by people with an intellectual disability should be studied within the broader context of psychological theories of decision-making and human behaviour. Theoretical findings are reviewed and areas identified in which decision-making behaviour may break down. The relevance of theoretical research to issues of competence and empowerment, and to the small body of research on decision-making and choice by people with an intellectual disability is discussed. It is concluded that future research should focus on contextual variables, including the nature of the decision to be made, which affect decision-making competence in people with an intellectual disability.

This paper is based on a qualitative study of the evaluation of sex education programmes for young people with severe learning difficulties. In an area so fraught with dilemmas and controversies, any such research will be problematic and tentative. The approach to evaluation described here is one which attempts to realise the right of people with learning difficulties to make informed choices. The course aims both to provide students with information which has traditionally been denied to them and to promote greater self-confidence. The evaluation methodology which has been developed embodies principles which seek to empower young people with learning difficulties. The questions which arise reach not only into the lives, feelings and values of individuals, but also confront the oppression of people with learning difficulties in our society.

This paper uses case material from a research study of parents with learning difficulties to show why parental competence can only be assessed in the context of people's lives and upbringing. Drawing on the ideas of futures planning, a distinction is made between a 'deficiency perspective' and a 'capacity perspective' on personal development. These two perspectives are applied to the analysis of the personal profile of a parent with learning difficulties. The results present a challenge to the presumption of incompetence that often informs the professional response to parenting by people with learning difficulties.

The commonsense view that understanding other people involves the use of a special faculty, that of empathy, has been endorsed by philosophers such as A. J. Watt and David Aspin. When the notion of empathy is extended to special education, as Aspin urges that it should be, then a preoccupation with the supposed special nature of the problems posed in empathising leads to the celebration of individual needs and compassion. The doctrine of compassion and the emphasis on the meeting of special needs, key features in some of the work of Mary Warnock, locates possibilities for action at the individual level and in the hands of expert professionals. It directs attention away from conflict and struggle in the arena of special education, and towards a consensual view of 'need'. Involvement in conflict, solidarity with the subjects of special education in their causes, is seen in this paper as arising out of shared sympathies. The individual power relationship of compassion is rejected in favour of having sympathies with others. It is argued that empathy has its foundation in a misleading account of the relationship between imagination and understanding.

For many years, community solutions have been the favoured response to physical and mental disability, but theoretical frameworks to guide these policies have not developed alongside the rhetoric. This paper attempts to fill the gap with one possible sociological model. We begin by distinguishing the dominant individualistic or 'personal trouble' perspective from the more controversial social or 'public issue' approach which, whether it takes an interpretative or a structural form, acknowledges the role of society in causing disabilities and shaping economic and social strategies. A model of policy is then drawn up for each viewpoint, bearing in mind the implications for public expenditure, state intervention, family and community support, and service organisation. Finally, it is argued that since help in the individualistic mould cannot cope with disability, an alternative response is required, which tackles economic, social and political institutions or structures while at the same time recognising the resistance to change in an industrial society.

This is an article by an historian about the work of an American anthropologist and social scientist who has for many years observed, recorded and participated in the lives of the mentally handicapped. It had its origins in a dissatisfaction with existing histories of retardation and a desire to seek out twentieth century sociological perspectives with relevance to and resonances for earlier periods.The paper falls into three sections. The first describes and analyses the polarity-social competence and incompetence within given cultures-which is central to Edgerton's conception of what he terms 'socio-cultural retardation'. This is followed by an evaluation of The Cloak of Competence [1], which concentrates on the interactions between deinstitutionalisation, stigma and passing for normal. A concluding section returns, by means of an examination of the validity of the notion of a 'retarded community', to a final interrogation of the causes as well as the meanings and contradictions implicit in 'socio-cultural retardation'. Attention is also briefly given to the ways in which historians, and explicitly historical methodologies, can contribute to further research within the general paradigm which Edgerton has pioneered.

The notion of 'citizenship' has become a popular slogan of governments who espouse a commitment to democratic ideals. Such discourse tends to emphasise responsibilities with little serious significance being given to the question of rights. In this paper we explore the continual discrimination which disabled people experience and which militates against the realisation of meaningful citizenship. The struggle for citizenship is viewed as an affirmation of the value of choice, independent and control which disabled people conceive in terms of human rights.

Through public policy the Canadian state claims to empower disadvantaged groups such as disabled mothers and their families. Equality means accommodation of difference and a fair share of society's resources according to the principles of Section 15 in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Through an examination of family-related policy, procedures and financing this paper shows how women with disabilities have been disadvantaged in regard to mothering. The author argues that where disabled mothers have experienced discrimination, they have been restricted in their rights as Canadian citizens.

This paper examines a case of discrimination against a deaf person at senior management level in education to illuminate the mechanism of discrimination and how, even when challenged, it can become a full-blown and deliberate victimisation and oppression. It questions the status of non-disabled 'experts' who mislead disabled people by encouraging them to adhere to unrealistic role concepts and expectations in pursuit of the perfect role model of the skilled disabled professional who can function in the absence of appropriate support, by isolating them from their own context, self-image and sense of humanity as disabled people. It further attempts to show the nature and extent of language abuse, institutional cultural monopoly and double standards which relegate disabled people to third class citizenship within diseased institutional frameworks, and suppress the possibility of a diversity of knowledge, skills, understanding and learning which makes for a more healthy 'affective climate' in education and society at large.

The general victimisation of adults with learning disabilities has received little significant attention. This position paper outlines relevant literature, and a current awareness of the nature of victimisation, police and reporting, and court procedures. It aims to provide a basis for research or other actions, which can contribute to minimising victimisation and maximising the means of support and redress for victims.

In the state of Victoria, Australia, the right of all children to be educated in a regular school has been Ministerial policy since 1984. However, the issue of integration of students with disabilities into mainstream schools is problematical because of the ways that practitioners interpret this policy. This paper summarises research on the attitudes of 194 primary and secondary school teachers to integration and discusses how these are impacting on the implementation process. It is argued that it is difficult to develop policies which define 'what will be' without careful consideration of 'what is' in terms of history, beliefs and attitudes. The researchers found that ideas arising from the practices of 'special' education are being imposed on the integration process, limiting teachers' visions of educational opportunity for all.

This paper presents data from semi-structured interviews with 190 families enabling comparisons across the life cycle of problems faced by carers of children and adults with learning difficulties, the informal support received and support from the statutory services. The size of the kin support network described was inversely related to the number of marked behaviour problems. Age, social class and degree of handicap were all found to be associated with different expectations about services and services received. Frequency of professional visits appeared to relate more to dependency levels and age than to numbers of behavioural problems. One implication of these trends was a marked service deficit for carers of adults with either high levels of dependency or challenging behaviour. Two groups of carers were particularly vulnerable-carers of adolescents and carers of individuals aged 40 years or over. The implications for professional practice are discussed.

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) is not a new concept but has become the focus for groups such as the World Health Organisation and other international aid agencies in facilitating the availability of rehabilitation services in developing countries throughout the world. Although much of the literature debates institutional versus community-based services and auxiliary versus fully trained personnel, little information is available to address the curriculum issues relating to training personnel to undertake CBR activities. The purpose of this paper is to present a curriculum model for preparing and implementing short programme workshops to encourage the development of CBR in different cultural settings. The curriculum model has foundations which are firmly rooted in curriculum and educational theory and concepts. It provides a flexible adult learning approach to introduce the broad concepts of CBR, providing the participants with culturally relevant, concrete, practical tools to allow the implementation of CBR activities. The workshop model has been used successfully with participants from diverse or homogeneous backgrounds.

Research on the effects on families of having a child with a disability has focused mainly on mothers or siblings with little attention being paid to fathers. While there is now a growing number of research studies and reviews regarding such fathers it is also important to assess fathers' own perceptions of their experiences. One source of fathers' perspectives are the published accounts by fathers of their experiences of parenting children with disabilities. This paper consists of a review of all eight such accounts which were located in the literature. Common themes which emerge from the review are discussed in the light of existing literature on the effects on family members. Finally the limitations of this review are discussed.

A great deal of material has been written regarding the effects of institutional living on people with learning difficulties. Much of this literature focuses on the negative aspects of institutionalization and views the individual as 'products' of these experiences. This paper argues that adults with learning difficulties are active participants in creating their own sense of cultural identity and community. Stories of four adults with learning difficulties, who have grown up in an institution in Ontario are used to explore how they envision a sense of their community through their shared experiences.

For all of their adult years the Ward brothers have been subsistence dairy farmers in a small rural community in central New York. In the spring of 1990 one of them was found dead and his brother, Delbert, was charged with murder and subsequently tried. A psychologist who testified for the defense put Delbert through a range of standard diagnostic procedures and declared he was "mentally retarded." Townfolks reacted to the events with a tremendous outpouring of unified support for Delbert and his brothers. Their reaction was so emphatic and so pronounced it attracted regional and national media attention. Parallelling current interest in the integration of people with various disabilities into the community, this paper discusses this family's natural acceptance in the community and the nature of community support.

This paper reviews concepts of mental retardation in Pakistan against an historical Asian and Islamic background, and discusses some hazards of Western cultural hegemony in this field. Evidence is presented from official documents, attitude surveys, a service development project and experiences in teacher training and family counselling. Families presenting their 'different' child usually offer comments on appearance, behaviour, capacity to learn, developmental progress and etiology. Since most family relationships and structures in Pakistan differ substantially from norms in Western countries, Western notions of 'independent living' and 'self-advocacy' are of questionable relevance. The socio-cultural construction of mental retardation is considered in the light of Pakistan's high national rate of non-literacy.

The government's community care proposals give importance to the role of voluntary and not-for-profit organisations in meeting the needs of elderly and disabled people, and underline the need for local authorities to foster their development. To do this, they must ensure their financial security. This paper reports the decline of the specialist clothing workshops which, because of changes in government funding, have dwindled from more than 20 in 1988 to five at present. The importance of this service to disabled people is discussed. Although many value skilled advice and sympathetic personal attention, for a few there is no other alternative than specially made or adapted clothing. It enhances self-esteem, independence and participation, as well as practical benefits. However it is an expensive service, so that subsidy is essential. Recommendations for the future of the service are outlined.

The Social Model of Disability is increasingly recognised as the theoretical and ideological underpinning for the collectivisation and politicisation of disabled people. This paper examines the Social Model from the perspective of disabled women. It then considers the position of disabled women in relation to both the women's movement and the disability movement. It argues that the former is oriented towards non-disabled women and the latter towards disabled men, with a consequent further marginalisation and disempowering of disabled women. Drawing on the history of black feminism, the author (who is a white non-disabled woman, and who teaches anti-discriminatory social work practice based on an integrated theoretical model) concludes by offering to disabled women a reframing of the analysis in which to explore their simultaneous experiencing of their gender and disability.

This paper will argue that research on disability has had little influence on policy and made no contribution to improving the lives of disabled people. In fact, up to now the process of research production has been alienating both for disabled people and for researchers themselves. Neither positivist nor interpretive paradigms are immune from the characterisation of research as alienation, and hence it is suggested that the only way to produce unalienated research is to change the social relations of research production. This change will require the development of an emancipatory research paradigm and both the development of and agenda for such a paradigm are briefly considered.

The relationship between voluntary agencies and their consumers has been the subject of very little, if any, empirical research. The burden of this paper is to highlight questions appropriate for investigation. It explores the idea of a 'power' relationship between voluntary agencies and consumers, and makes particular reference to the theory of a social construction of disability. Questions are raised about the meaning of 'consumer participation' and the role of the disability movement. Consumer participation depends upon the exercise of power; which itself requires the fulfilment of three pre-conditions. Successful implementation hinges on more than just structural and operational change. Participation must be seen as a process of re-definition: a reconstruction of the social reality in which voluntary groups exist. Such a process fundamentally alters the relationship between voluntary agencies and consumers; and so transforms the ethos and nature of voluntary action itself.

Feminist theory and methodology have much to offer in understanding how disability research has been experienced as alienated research by disabled people. However, feminist research has failed to apply its principles to disability and disabled women's subjective reality has found no place in mainstream feminist work. The paper identifies the challenges for feminism in addressing the interests and reality of disabled women, asserting that it is not helpful to focus on 'double disadvantage'. Disability research itself has much to learn from feminist methodology, in particular the principle of making the personal political. The role of non-disabled researchers as allies of disabled people is discussed, and the importance of research which turns the spotlight on the way in which non-disabled society oppresses disabled people. Finally, it is asserted that disability research and politics are of general relevance because the experience of disability is an integral part of a society characterised by fundamental inequalities and ideologies which divide people against each other.

This paper distinguishes between participatory and emancipatory research, and discusses how both differ from other research practice. A further distinction is made between material and social relations of disability research production. It is argued that, although there are significant constraints imposed by the material relations of research production, genuine progress can still be made in changing the social relations of disability research. Based on the experience of doing research commissioned by organisations of disabled people and other work carried out within a framework of 'user's perspectives' on services and policy, the discussion focuses on the lessons we have learnt-and those we still need to learn-about how to change the relations of research production. Consultation between researchers and disabled people, subjecting research to critical scrutiny, and making researchers accountable to disabled people are suggested as key issues in the development of participatory research.

The relationship between research and policy making is complex and not always direct. This paper describes disability-related research for policy makers which is carried out at the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York. A distinction between the ways in which research is formed and the ways in which it is informed is made. The informing of research influences how it is carried out; the research questions themselves, the choice of design and methods, the form of analysis, and the pattern of dissemination. The seminar series has helped SPRU reappraise its disability-related research. Disabled people must be able to influence the framing and elaboration of research questions more directly; there must be an increased commitment to employing and to training disabled researchers; dissemination must be wider; 'crucial gateways' to policy makers and practitioners have to be identified; and the debate on informal care must be moved further on.

The normalisation principle is the dominant paradigm in the field of learning difficulty research and service development. This paper attempts a sociological examination of the normalisation principle. It argues that the location of learning difficulty as a practice-oriented issue and its absence from a sociological agenda have rendered normalisation theoretically weak. The critique discusses the following points. The concerns of the normalisation principle reflect those of professionals rather than of people with learning difficulties. Normalisation lacks an exploration of the power relationship between (able-bodied) professionals and (disabled) service users. Finally, it encompasses no analysis of the material and ideological factors which socially construct learning difficulty and disempower and (literally) impoverish people with learning difficulties.

This paper evaluates qualitative research methods in relation to the emancipatory research model. It identifies the main reasons why researchers opt for qualitative research, describes the principal data collection techniques used by them, and discusses some of the problems associated with these procedures. Drawing on insights gained from doing qualitative research in day centres for disabled young adults, I argue that these methodologies are fundamental to the emancipatory research paradigm; but their relevance can only be determined by researchers' willingness to challenge the institutions which control disability research production.

This paper examines issues of theory, methods and ethics in the use of disability simulations. Much of the educational, rehabilitation and counseling literature encourages teachers and counselors to use simulations to reduce prejudice toward persons with disabilities. However, the disability simulation literature reveals that: (a) there is typically a failure to consider the relationship between social/behavioral science theory and simulation design; (b) there are methodological weaknesses in most of the studies that render them virtually worthless to evaluate attitude change; and (c) there is little discussion of ethical concerns in disability simulations. A research agenda is proposed that focuses on logical, methodological and ethical issues in disability simulations. It is argued that simulations can be effective if: (a) certain ethical precautions are taken; (b) activities are well designed and evaluated; and (c) the simulation exercises are closely linked to social/behavioral science theory.

This paper describes a study of the work of domiciliary support services which have been developed under the All-Wales Strategy for services to people with learning difficulties. The study employed direct observation methodology to describe the pattern of activities of domiciliary support workers and their clients. Twenty-eight sessions were observed, with the work of the domiciliary support worker with each client being observed twice. The pattern of work observed broadly fell into four categories: physical care in the family home, sitting-in, support for skill development and support in community activities. The results revealed that while support workers worked with skill and sensitivity in the family home they require further guidance and support if they are to assist successfully in skill development and community integration activities.

This paper provides a summary of the main findings of the first two OPCS reports on disability and a critique of the methodology employed. Whilst the first report highlights the systematic underestimation of the prevalence of disability which was enshrined in previous government research, it should by no means be interpreted as providing the 'true' figure. Such a project is an impossible one, since 'disability' is a social construct, and definitions dependent upon the interests, intentions and presuppositions of those with the power to define. As far as the severity scales are concerned, a wholly spurious 'objectivity' is identified. The second report, on financial circumstances, does implicitly provide official recognition that disability causes poverty. Because of the research methods employed, however, it fails even to approach an adequate quantification of the financial disadvantages experienced by disabled people. A critical understanding of the deficiencies of the OPCS surveys, in terms both of overall approach and of method, can provide a salutary example of how not to research issues of disability.

The self-concept is an image which an individual has of themselves (Burns, 1982). It is formed by a conceptualisation process (Kelly, 1955) which requires experiences for information. Much of the psychological development of a person is bound up with the emerging sense of self, but in spite of its importance, the phenomenon of the self is one of the most difficult to explain. Physical ability could be said to be crucial to the way an individual becomes conscious of and develops a unique separate identity. It facilitates conceptualisation by receiving stimuli, interpreting information and enabling response. It is also of paramount importance in the area of general mobility, maintaining body functions, and enhancing the whole early learning processes of social interaction, the building of self-esteem and the achievement of life goals. Other people's perception of an individual, and that individual's perception of themselves will be greatly affected by physical appearance as well as mental achievement. Therefore, because the physical component is such an important factor in the development of the individual (Cohen, 1977) it could be argued that physical handicap probably affects self-concept formation most profoundly. This paper outlines relevant theories of self-concept and discusses the relationship between self-esteem and body image. The possible impact of physical handicap on self-concept formation will then be examined. Finally, educational implications and conclusions will be drawn, especially in the light of the policies and initiatives now afoot, to include physically handicapped pupils into mainstream school.

Deaf students are enrolling in postsecondary educational institutions in the United States in greater numbers than ever before. However, attrition rates remain high. Models for explaining persistence in college link success to student integration within the informal and social fabric of their institution. The research reported in this paper is the result of a study of social integration of deaf and hearing students within a residence hall on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology. It was found that characteristics of both the individual and of the postsecondary environment are important in explaining interaction levels. An ecological model is proposed as a framework for describing and analyzing student integration within informal and social dimensions of college life.

This paper analyzes the sources of conflict between professionals and organizations providing services and consumer-oriented self-help organizations of blind people. It reviews major developments within this profession and the rejection of the resulting professional ideologies by a new social movement. We demonstrate that there is not a unity of interest between agencies and the recipients of rehabilitation efforts. Professional and organizational self-interests are opposed to consumer efforts to redefine the nature of blindness. As consumer political effectiveness continues to grow, the threat to the funding and public legitimacy of existing programs may result in a change in attitudes toward consumer participation and definitions of blindness.

This paper discusses the ethics of professional use of pain as a means of changing people with severe disabilities. It states principles for selecting responses to a person who injures self or others, distingishes the professional application of pain from other occasions of pain, examines the limits of dealing with the ethics of inflicting pain from within the perspectives of professionalism and due process, and identifies some social conditions necessary to reduce the occurrence of pain.

This paper reviews some of the major themes of social policy in Britain over the past decade and examines in detail the impact on disabled people in three major areas: employment; income and social security provision; and the organisation and delivery of health and social welfare services. It will be argued that, despite some superficial similarities between the demands of disabled people and the rhetoric of the New Right for reductions in dependency and control by the state, the dominant policy themes of free market forces, privatisation and reductions in the scope of welfare state services have not served disabled people's interests well. Moreover, attempts to "protect" disabled people within a much reduced welfare state have not been effective and have in any case had the unwelcome consequence of increasing the scrutiny and control exercised by professionals and others. This stands in contrast to the alternative policy agenda articulated by disabled people themselves, which stresses autonomy, integration, an end to discrimination, and rights - to equal chances in employment, to an adequate level of income, and to services which enhance personal choice and facilitate independent living.